Microsoft Office Excel for Engineers

Excel Primer

This document outlines many of the commands reviewed in the

SolidWorks screencast Microsoft Office Excel Tips for Engineers

Created By:
Darren Henry, Director of Product Marketing
Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation

©2009 Dassault Systèmes, All Rights Reserved

Data Population
Quickly populate adjacent cells with series of values

Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday

January

Cell Addressing
In formulas, Excel uses relative addressing by default. As you copy formulas through your
spreadsheet it will adjust the cell locations.

To lock down the cell location insert a dollar sign "$" in the cell address.

Equation How Excel interprets the address

=A5 relative addressing
=$A$5 equation will always reference cell A5 no matter where it is copied
=$A5 equation will always reference column A, but will adjust the row number as it is copied
=A$5 equation will always reference row 5, but will adjust the column letter as it is copied

Darren's Tips: Use the F4 key to quickly cycle through the various address
combinations
er as it is copied
as it is copied
Data Validation (List)
Location: Data →Data Validation
Use Data Validation to make user friendly pick lists

Possible Uses:
Prompting for options and accessories
Selecting languages, units, or styles

Darren's Tips: The list used for validation must reside on the same worksheet as
the cell being validated. The "Source" field of a Data Validation list can utilize "IF"
functions to add another level of customization.

Example:
Color hexadecimal
Blue 16711680

Color Red Green Blue Hexadecimal

Black 0 0 0 0
Red 255 0 0 255
Orange 255 128 0 33023
Green 0 255 0 65280
Blue 0 0 255 ###
Purple 255 128 255 ###
Turquoise 0 255 255 ###
White 255 255 255 ###
e worksheet as
st can utilize "IF"
IF
Syntax: IF(logical_test,value_if_true,value_if_false)
Use IF to conduct conditional tests on values and formulas. Returns one
value if a condition you specify evaluates to TRUE and another value if it
evaluates to FALSE.

Possible Uses:
Millions of uses, from conditional formulas based on dimensions, to part
number prefixes based on options. When driving CAD models with Excel,
use IF functions to control whether a component is suppressed or resolved.

Darren's Tips: You can nest up to six IF functions, but if there is more than
three, consider storing data in a table and use Vlookup.
$STATE@Caster<1

Darren Henry:
Here an IF function
suppresses or resolves
a caster component
based on a user's
Caster?

choice. Type in "No" in

cell B11 to see the
change.
>

Example: Yes R
CONCATENATE
Text1, text2, ... are 1 to 30 text items to be joined into a single text item.
Syntax:
The CONCATENATE
text items (text1,text2,...)
can be text strings, numbers, or single-cell references.

Possible Uses:
Piecing together part numbers

Darren's Tips: You can explicitly type in any symbols that separate prefixes
and suffixes, but I find if you list them in individual cells, it aids in edit-ability

Material Length Hole spacing

Example: SS 12 1.5

Special Character
- Part NumberSS-12-1.5
&
Syntax: "Text1"&" Text 2"
.

Possible Uses:
Piecing together part numbers

Darren's Tips: Remember to add " " Space between variables when desired

material Length hole spacing

Example: SS 12 15
Darren Henry:
Part Number SS - 12 - 15 Here we used a simple
formula with & to piece
together a part
number. We explicitly
typed in the dashes
and spaces.
VLOOKUP
Syntax: VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,range_lookup)
Searches for a value in the leftmost column of a table, and then returns a
value in the same row from a column you specify in the table.

Possible Uses:
Use instead of writing nested IF statements, finding part number prefixes and
suffixes, finding correct hexadecimal color code, etc
Darren's Tips: Watch out for unwanted spaces in the first column, excel will
not find a match if there is and extra space in the text string. You can
Vlookup from different worksheets, so organize your tables by storing data on
other worksheets

Example: Color hexadecimal Darren Henry:

Vlookup is locating
Black 0 the color in the table
and then returning
the corresponding
value in the 5th
column.
Color Red Green Blue Hexadecimal
Black 0 0 0 0
Red 255 0 0 255
Orange 255 128 0 33023
Green 0 255 0 65280
Blue 0 0 255 16711680
Purple 255 128 255 16744703
Turquoise 0 255 255 16776960
White 255 255 255 16777215
nge_lookup)
Trace Precedents
Found under Formulas-> Trace Precedents
Draws arrows to show cell dependencies. Great tool to help understand where a
cell's value originates.

Possible Uses:
Making your formulas easy to troubleshoot
Darren's Tips: Use Trace Precedence, Show Formulas, and simple double
clicking to help understand which cells have equations and where they
come from. The arrows will be removed when saving or you can use the
Remove Arrows command when you are done.

material Length hole spacing

Example: SS 12 15

Special Character
- Part Number SS-12-15
Darren Henry:
click on cell and choose
Formulas ->Trace
Precedents
INT
Syntax: INT(number)
Rounds a number down to the nearest integer.

Possible Uses:
Use when calculating number of instances in patterns
Darren's Tips: INT does not round up, so accurate hole calculations may require multiple
formulas

Example 1: Number Integer

2.8 2

Example 2: overall length 18

hole spacing 3.5
number of holes 5
Custom Views
Found under Views --> Custom Views…
Quickly toggle betweens showing your control panel, and the entire design
table

Darren Henry:
a few custom views
have been created. Go
to View->Custom View
to see them.
CONVERT
Syntax: CONVERT(number,from_unit,to_unit)
Use Convert to convert a number from one unit of measurement to
another.

Possible Uses:
Great for any type of Engineering calculation. Allow the user of the
spreadsheet to specify the type of units they are familiar with, and
convert all data to suite.

Darren's Tips: Specify the from_unit and to_unit in cells, so they can
be changed quickly.

Heat Converter
2400 J equals 2.275 BTU

Darren Henry: Darren Henry:

Enter any value in this Convert was used in
cell and it will be this cell to calculate the
converted from Joules value of BTUs
to BTUs
Paste Special
Location: Available from Right Mouse Button, once a cell has been selected for cop
Enables the user to copy more than a cells value. Includes the ability to copy
data validation restrictions as well as perform bulk mathematical tasks.

Possible Uses:
Update price sheets or quantities in BOMs

Price New Price Multiplier

$100.00 0.9
$150.00
$200.00
Darren Henry:
$250.00 Select cell D20 and choose
$300.00 Copy, then highlight the
$350.00 prices and use Paste Special,
Multiply. All the numbers
will be multiplied by 0.9
een selected for copy
Copying from PDF files
Many product spec sheets and property tables are available as PDF files. Often you
may copy the data for use with 3D CAD models.

In Adobe Acrobat, when selecting large amounts of tabular data, use the right
mouse button option: "Copy as Table" to aid in copying the data